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The Nigerian government needs more revenue to fund economic growth and its spending, and it is undertaking tax reforms and closing oil production gaps to achieve this. One of the revenue sources the government is betting on is the ₦50 charge — the Electronic Money Transfer Levy — you pay every time you transfer ₦10,000 ($6.72) and more.
From this levy alone, the government hopes to raise ₦796.01 billion ($534.99 million)—enough to start and complete the Lagos-Ibadan expressway twice. Yearly breakdown translates to ₦228.85 billion ($153.81 million) in 2025, ₦263.68 billion ($177.22 million) in 2026, and ₦303.48 billion ($203.97 million) in 2027.
The government already earned ₦219.11 billion ($147.26 million) in 2024, overshooting its ₦174.24 billion ($117.11 million) projection by ₦44.87 billion ($30.16 million).
The EMTL replaced Stamp Duty and came into effect under the Finance ACT 2020, and initially only applied to banks. The levy was meant to diversify revenue away from oil and tap into Nigeria’s booming e-payments market, which hit ₦1 quadrillion in 2024.
Revenue from EMTL is shared between the federal government (15%), state governments (50%), and local governments (35%).
The government projects that the volume of online transactions it can tax will grow to over 5 billion in 2026, and over 6 billion by 2027. This already crossed 11 billion in 2024, which explains why the government collected ₦44.87 billion ($30.16 million) more in 2024.
The fintech effect
A big part of the government’s EMTL bet is tied to the extension of the levy to transactions through fintechs like Opay, Palmpay, and Moniepoint. Initially, the levy only applied to banks, but since December 2024, it has been extended to fintechs.
This move increased EMTL revenue by 84.22% year-on-year to ₦185.86 billion ($124.91 million) between December 2024 and May 2025.
This was opposed to concerns at the time that the levy could impact cashless adoption. It also aligned with this report from the International Center for Tax and Development: “Despite initial opposition, Ghana enacted the E-Levy to include informal economy transactions and enhance domestic resource mobilisation. Electronic transactions have surged in Ghana…”
Nigeria’s mobile-first neobanks platforms like Opay and PalmPay now serve millions who traditional banks struggled to reach. OPay reportedly had 10 million daily active users and processed 100 million daily transaction volumes in 2024, while PalmPay has a user base of over 35 million.
“There is still a gap in the number of the adult population that is unbanked, and this responsibility falls on fintechs,” said Chika Nwosu, managing director of Palmpay, during a recent TV interview.
Transaction values through these platforms have increased by 2,507.94% between 2020 and 2024.
The government is betting that increased compliance across the board will improve its collections over the medium term.
“Monitoring banks and other financial institutions to conduct reconciliation and to ensure deduction and remittance of Electronic Money Transfer levy,” the government said in a new policy document.
The EMTL is a growing shift in how the government views digital transactions as a significant revenue source, especially as cashless transactions surge. For users, the levy is small—₦50 per transfer above ₦10,000—but multiplied across billions of transactions, it becomes a critical revenue stream for a government eager to scrape every available naira.
Note: exchange rate used: ₦1,487.9/$
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